Tag: iPhone 4

As predicted by many pundits, Apple has announced that it will provide free bumper cases to iPhone 4 owners. This offer will be applicable to all iPhone 4 handsets purchased through September 30. In order to satisfy demand, Apple will also offer consumers the option of choosing a third-party iPhone 4 case. Anyone who has already purchased a bumper case is eligible for complete refund.

The iPhone 4 death-grip controversy is a rare instance where Apple has been caught completely off guard. It’s even rare to see Steve Jobs being forced to defend an Apple product in front of journalists. Yet, that is what he did today.

“You know, we’re not perfect. And phones aren’t perfect either. But we want to make all of our users happy. And if you don’t know that about Apple, you don’t know Apple”, is not the kind of statement you would normally associate with Jobs. Also, by giving away a free bumper, Apple is virtually admitting that the death grip is an hardware issue, which can’t be fixed through software updates.

Jobs also promised to fix the other significant issue with the iPhone 4 – the proximity sensor, through a software update.

Apple is obviously hoping that the freebie will diffuse the negative publicity surrounding the iPhone 4 death-grip. In many ways, it was the only realistic option available to Apple. On one hand, the controversy threatened to snowball into a massive backlash, if left unattended. On the other hand, a full recall would have been immensely costly for Apple.

If you are an iPhone 4 owner, don’t forget to let us know what you feel about Apple’s offer? Are you satisfied, or does being forced to use a case bother you?

The Apple iPhone 4 conference just got over, and Steve Jobs admitted the iPhone 4 Antennagateissue. The conference started in quite a surprising way with the iPhone 4 antenna song. After this Steve boasted about the huge success of the iPhone 4. He said that Apple managed to sell 3,000,000 iPhone 4’s in less than 3 weeks. Along with this, he said that the iPhone 4 has the highest customer satisfaction. Steve then moved on to say that Apple started working on the Antennagateissue when lot of users started complaining about it. He said that Phones aren’t perfectand every phone drops network when gripped in a certain way.

Steve backed up his claim by demonstrating the Death gripon many of the popular handsets like the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Omnia II. All the phones dropped down the signal level to 0 or 1 bars when the death gripwas applied on them. Steve then said that if the Xspot on the iPhone 4 gets covered then the handset will drop network to a certain extent. He also said that the wrong signal calculation algorithm made things worse.

Steve then boasted that Apple has invested over $100 million on their 17 anechoic chambers/antenna labs. He said that Apple hopes to contribute to this Antennagateissue from which all the smartphones suffer. Steve then moved on to quote some data from the AppleCare. According to AppleCare data, only 0.55% of the total iPhone 4 owners called Apple/AT&T for the poor network reception issue. Also, according to the data the iPhone 4 return rate is 1.7%, which is a less than one-third of the iPhone 3GS’ 6% return rate.

Steve then said, referring to the AppleCare data, that even though the iPhone 4 has a better antenna the phone drops more calls than the iPhone 3GS. How much additional calls does the iPhone 4 drop compared to iPhone 3GS, you ask? Well it’s less than 1 per hundred calls.

After giving a quick overview of what he said above, Steve said that only a small portion of the iPhone 4 owners were affected by the iPhone 4 reception issues. To make them happy, Apple is going to offer “A free case for every iPhone 4 buyer.Users who have already got the iPhone 4 case will be given a refund by Apple. Also, Apple will be offering its users a choice of cases, instead of just one case. Sadly, this offer is valid only until September 30.

Steve also said that even after all this, if users are not happy with their iPhone 4, then they can return it back to Apple within 30 days. Steve then moved on to another problem of the iPhone 4 – the proximity sensor. He said that the next software update will fix the proximity sensor issue plaguing the iPhone 4. He also said that the white iPhone 4 will start shipping by the end of July.

In the end, Steve said that Apple will be launching the iPhone 4 in 17 more countries by the end of this month. Steve then also thanked all various Apple product owners, and said that Apple will always care for its users.

Steve Jobs has promised every iPhone 4 a free bumper case. Steve Jobs said: "Secondly: a lot of people have told us the bumper solves the signal strength problem. Okay. Great. Let’s give everyone a case. We want to give everyone is going to get a free case."

And with this he announced that every iPhone 4 users will get a free bumper case through September 30th and if you have purchased a bumper case separately, Apple will give you a refund for it.

Apple has also promised to buy cases from 3rd party vendors due to the shortage of bumper cases with them, so you just have to pick a case and Apple will send it to you for free. In addition to that you can also send back your iPhone 4 to Apple if you are not happy with it.

Apple is holding a Press Conference about the iPhone 4 presumably to address concerns about the signal "Death Grip" issues, plaguing them since the iPhone 4 launched last month. Apple has sold over 3 million units since launch, and many if not all of them have an issue where the signal bar drops if you hold the phone in a certain way.

A bumper cases is said to resolve the issue, but is not clear whether Apple might be forced to recall the iPhone 4 units or provide free bumper cases to everyone. Also, it is not clear at this time whether Steve Jobs himself will be talking at the conference or not.

Apple has been dodging the iPhone 4 reception issues by asking users to hold the iPhone 4 differently and also addressing the public through an open letter about the reception issues. However, a recent Consumer Reports article which asked users to avoid the iPhone 4 has not yet gotten any response from Apple.

Apple usually does not allow live streaming of the conference, but there are several other ways in which you can stay on top of the Apple iPhone 4 press conference on Friday, July 16, 2010 to be held in California.

Lucky folks from Engadget get to attend the conference live, which you can follow at Engadget Live. Mac Rumors may also cover the press conference live and you can view the updates at http://www.macrumorslive.com/. In addition to that our favorite site GDGT may also cover the event which you can view updates for at http://live.gdgt.com/. All Things D a popular site will also cover the conference live, which you can follow by visiting this link.

Audio streams for the iPhone 4 press conference will be available at http://live.twit.tv/, you can also follow the updates on Twitter by following @macrumorslive.

More options to get updates on the Apple iPhone 4 press conference will be added once they become available, we will also try to add some video streams if they are available later on.

However, according to @iH8sn0w, who is the developer behind sn0wbreeze, sn0wbreeze 1.8 will be able to jailbreak iOS 4.1 Beta on iPhone 3GS, however, you will require to have a pre-jailbroken phone running iOS 4. Though the date of the sn0wbreeze 1.8 iPhone jailbreak is not yet know, it should definitely be out in the next few days.

Apple has released a new update to iOS 4 with a minor revision of iOS 4.0.1, the new update for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch tweaks the signal indicator which displays the signal strength.

The iOS 4.0.1 update is not the same as the iOS 4.1 beta released yesterday and does not improve the signal strength but only changes the way the signal bars are displayed. According to Apple, the algorithm they had earlier displayed additional bars which is why people had seen the drop in signal bars.

However, this just looks like a cover-up and may just resolve the display issue and not the actual call dropping aka Death Grip issue which has been plaguing a lot of users. To upgrade to iOS 4.0.1, plug in your phone or iPod touch to your PC and click on the "Check for Updates" button in iTunes. Did you update to iOS 4.0.1 and see the call drop issue vanishing or did it just fix the display?

Note: If you have jailbroken your iPhone on iOS4, do not update to iOS 4.0.1 yet as it will render the iOS 4 jailbreak useless, also there is really no reason to update to iOS 4.0.1 as it just fixes the signal bar rendering and nothing else.

Looks like Apple is not only concentrating on the iPhone 4 reception issues. Digitimes reports that Apple has been working on a new MacBook Air. The next generation MacBook Air will be featuring an 11.6-inch screen, and will be powered by an Intel Core i series ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor.

Along with the next generation MacBook Air, Apple is also working on the next generation iPod refresh. There is a very strong possibility that the next generation iPod Touch will feature a camera. According to Digitimes, the next generation iPod Touch will feature a 3MP camera, which is capable of clicking pictures and recording videos. The next gen iPod Touch will also be powered by the 1Ghz Apple A4 processor.

The MacBook Air and the iPod Touch will be manufactured by Quanta Computer, according to the report from Digitimes.

Apple will be holding a Press Conference about the iPhone 4 presumably to address concerns about the Antenna "Death Grip" issues, plaguing them since the iPhone 4 launched. It is not clear at this time whether Steve Jobs himself will be talking at the conference or not.

Apple has been dodging the iPhone 4 reception issues by asking users to hold the iPhone 4 differently and also addressing the public through an open letter about the reception issues. However, a recent Consumer Reports article which asked users to avoid the iPhone 4 has not yet gotten any response from Apple.

Apple usually does not allow live streaming of the conference, but there are several other ways in which you can stay on top of the Apple iPhone 4 press conference on Friday, July 16, 2010 to be held in California.

Lucky folks from Engadget get to attend the conference live, which you can follow at Engadget Live. Mac Rumors may also cover the press conference live and you can view the updates at http://www.macrumorslive.com/. In addition to that our favorite site GDGT may also cover the event which you can view updates for at http://live.gdgt.com/

Audio streams for the iPhone 4 press conference will be available at http://live.twit.tv/, you can also follow the updates on Twitter by following @macrumorslive.

More options to get updates on the Apple iPhone 4 press conference will be added once they become available, we will also try to add some video streams if they are available later on.

Right now there is not concrete news from the Dev Team or other iPhone jailbreak developers as to whether they are working on updating the software to work with iOS 4.1. Nevertheless, it is a bit early to say anything since this is still beta software and Apple may go through several iterations before they release iOS 4.1 to public.

We will keep an eye on new developments regarding Jailbreaking iOS 4.1 and Unlocking iOS 4.1 and post the news as we come across them. Till then keep your fingers crosses and subscribe to our Mobile News to keep an eye on updates.